Lonely Planet
MAMA presents the solo exhibition "Lonely Planet" by Susan Kooi. This presentation is the first part of a triptych in which Susan travels to Italy, Portugal, and Japan.
Part one originates in the Italian region of Campania. Within a typical Italian museum setting, Susan’s ceramic objects reflect on her residency in southern Italy, where she researched the region’s history and ancient crafts.
fts.
Susan Kooi (1988) completed her bachelor’s degree in VAV at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in 2012. Her multidisciplinary practice includes music, video, sculpture, installations, text, and fashion. Susan’s interest in notions of (pre) history has a cheery existentialist perspective. What are the objects that lay claim to existence?
In 2015, MAMA presented her work “Lutra Lutra Lutra, The Renaissance of the Italian Other” at The Others art fair in Turin, where Susan and MAMA met Valerio Fornace – the owner of the Fornace Falcone terracotta works in Montecalvino. He was so fond of Susan’s work that the meeting led to them collaborating. Susan’s residency at Fornace Falcone became the starting point for “Lonely Planet”.
Lonely Planet
The project presents the (user) object as a time machine and speculates on how the object can have multiple truths and merge different timelines. For the first part of the “Lonely Planet” triptych, Susan travelled to Campania, where history is palpable and old crafts are still practised. She worked at the Fornace Falcone terracotta works, searched for objects in Naples, and found ancient graffiti in Pompeii.
At MAMA, Susan exhibits objects she found in the Italian region of Campania, which she poetically reconstructs. The ceramic objects are exhibited in a typical Italian museum setting, in velvet-lined display cases and with accompanying captions. Pompeian graffiti is inscribed on partly plastered walls, and objects are brought to life during several re-enactments.
Publication
An alternative travel guide to take the viewer along the objects, with contributions by Hanna Bervoets, Maurits de Bruijn, Nathalie Hartjes, and Vincent Hunink, accompanies the exhibition. The texts suggest what the objects could have been, what they evoke in the past and present, and what they offer us in the future. The publication will be published by Jap Sam Books and is for sale in MAMA’s showroom and through our website.
Celebrate ancient Roman and Italian holidays at MAMA
During the opening on 4 December Bona Dea, Roman goddess of fertility, is honoured. The shortest day of the year, winter solstice, will be celebrated on 21 December; and the witch Befana will give out gifts on 5 January. During these moments, re-enactments will bring the exhibition’s objects to life.
Curated by Marloes de Vries with contributions by Suzan Kooi
About HOME
HOME is the leitmotiv by which we encourage conversation about conceptions regarding belonging, representation and identification. HOME is a fundament, the place you return to and anchorpoint for the journey onward. HOME (offline as well as online) is the start of feeling connect to others. Under the name HOME we also present exhibitions in the showroom of MAMA. In collaboration with young makers we express interpretations about HOME | IN REAL LIFE | NETWORKS.
